Ah, I should clarify: I'm not picking on it when I say it's not a game, I'm expressing my surprise at how well everything was communicated WITHOUT a game. This is praise.
Proud of you for completing something, man, no matter how small. It may not fix the world, but it fixed a very small piece of my heart. Maybe I can be good enough, even if I don't feel like my projects are. Maybe I can fix a very small piece of someone's heart, too.
No worries, I didn't take it as a criticism, but it did make me think about what the best way to label and describe projects like this is, and about what kind of a role 'gameplay' should have in my projects. :)
I think what I'm learning is that what we feel about our work and what others feel are two completely different things, and that our own standards of perfectionism aren't a good measure for what other people will find meaningful. Also, when I think about it, I can find things 'wrong' with all of my favourite media, but that doesn't stop them from having huge value to me. The classic narrative for creators is 'If my work isn't amazing then no one will like it', but actually people don't notice or can overlook all kinds of flaws when they connect with something. Maybe being real is what matters most, and anyone can make something real, whatever their level of skill is.